There is definitely a barrier to entry with Magento. Development is not nearly as intuitive as it is with a system like WordPress. Drupal is as confused as the people who built it, constantly changing the entire thing each release. They probably change their core more often then I change my underwear.

WordPress

Out of all of the systems I do have to admit that each has it's benefits. WordPress theming is crazy simple and the freedom that plugin developers are given can leave you confused without a purpose or direction. You can hack the core of WordPress as easy as you can write a post in the administrative area. The graphic artists that tend to design for a system like this love open spaces and large poster images. It's a very welcoming system and great for blogging.

Magento

Magento is like a King, everything must be in exact order and speak only when spoken to. You must request permission to edit the core, while attempts to override only end in conflicts. The platform is run like a legion of soldiers, each with a specific task and carries it out in sync with everything else. The platform is guaranteed to give you a stable and reliable ecommerce website, which is probably why it makes up 40% of the ecommerce stores online. The fact that Magento is a legion is also the reason why it is as slow as one.

Drupal

Drupal is like a band of hippies that have great ideas but no leadership to organize the protesters. The core code is being changed so often that the extensions directory is more like an archive of dead code. Do not upgrade if things are working! If you can get them working...

Joomla

Joomla is fantastic, but still seems to be missing a clear purpose. It is a Jack of all trades and a master of none. If you want to build something custom, then build it on Joomla if another system doesn't already specialize in the idea. Joomla is a favorite, highly respected, but rarely used.

Who Am I?

My name is Jonathon Byrd, I'm a Software Engineer turned Marketer, Consultant and Magento Enthusiast, because that's the only community that makes money :)